Film Season: #DirectedbyWomen at Liverpool Small Cinema
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Liverpool Small Cinema has quietly established itself as one of the most dynamic, forward-thinking film organisations about. The community-run cinema recently dedicated 58% of their programming to films by women, trans and non-binary filmmakers. This month they’re at it again, with an extensive, diverse selection of films showing as part of this year’s partnership between Scalarama and #DirectedbyWomen.
Penny Marshall’s beloved Tom Hanks vehicle Big kicks off proceedings on Saturday 4th September. Then on the 8th September, the folk behind Think Cinema take us to Argentina for Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman followed by the Liverpool premiere of Arantxa Echevarria’s short film De Pronto Y De Noche (Suddenly One Night).
The film team at independent culture magazine, The Skinny are on hand to introduce a pair of their favourite works by female filmmakers. On September 14th they have Kathryn Bigelow’s (The Hurt Locker) painstakingly cool biker movie The Loveless. Then on the 28th they’ll be screening the textured, deeply unsettling vampire movie, Trouble Every Day from French art-house master Claire Denis.
Look out for acclaimed director, Jane Campion’s harrowing dramatisation of author Janet Frame’s autobiographies, An Angel at My Table on September 11th. Then a few days later on the 15th, the cinema plays host to Mania Akbari’s confrontational Iranian film One. Two. One, which sits alongside Farough Farrokhzad’s 1962 short film The House is Black.
Meanwhile, Elsewhere Cinema present American rarity Losing Ground on Sun 18th September with a discussion panel featuring author Sophie Mayer. This terrific 1982 work by director Kathleen Colins – a lost voice in the black independent film scene – critically (and comically) examines accepted codes of behaviour for men and women in New York bohemia.
There’s also the chance to catch up with one of the best films of the year in Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang on the 22nd September. This sensual, spirited Turkish tale of five sisters locked away by their family for innocently playing with some local boys is a must for those who missed it in cinemas earlier this year.
